Share this article

If Mrs May cannot prove she is making progress to have him deported,
judges could lift his bail conditions altogether in two months, a
nightmare scenario for the security services and police.

Talks with Jordan are being handled with great care by Mrs May, who is
expected to stay in the country for a further two days.

She said Jordan
had made ‘significant human rights advances’, but that they had not been
recognised by the European court, and that the two countries would
continue to work together.

Promises: Mrs May is understood to have flown to Amman (pictured) last night to seek assurances that Qatada will not be tortured on his return

She said: ‘Talks today have been positive but we have more work to do in
getting the kind of assurances that will allow us to deport Qatada once
and for all.

‘This case has gone on for over a decade and I want to bring it to a satisfactory end soon.’

The best case scenario would be an agreement which allowed Mrs May to
return to the courts and say significant progress was being made.

She
could then ask for Qatada’s bail to be cancelled and for him to be
returned to custody.

He was given bail on the grounds the chances of him being deported were slipping away.

Ayman Odeh, the Jordanian legislative affairs minister, has said his
country passed a constitutional amendment in September to ban the use of
evidence obtained through torture.

But Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the Jordanians still needed to give ‘credible assurances so that he [Qatada] can go back’.

This would mean a human rights lawyer in Strasbourg or the UK being convinced that the assurances were real, he said.

Mr Clarke added: ‘It will be very disappointing if the Jordanians will
not agree that they won’t use evidence that was obtained by torture.’

Conservative MP Peter Bone, who has led calls for Abu Qatada to be sent
back to Jordan, predicted he would be deported shortly, saying: ‘There
is no issue on this – he should go.’

He was convicted in his absence in Jordan of alleged involvement in a
plot to target Americans and Israeli tourists during the country’s
millennium celebrations. He will be retried on the same charges if he is
returned.